Category: learning curve

Wednesday ephemera

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Loads of things to write about but none of them deserving a full post of their own (although some other bloggers may disagree)?
It’s time for Wednesday ephemera!

Please feel free to while away your day with these links:

In a week that gave everywhere except Cape Town some snow, Windguru is predicting 10.2m seas and wind gusts of 91kph for the Mother City on Saturday | Nice wine | xkcd finally comes up with a way of stopping Michael Phelps | The 1% differences that gave TeamGB’s cyclists the edge at the Olympics | Great photos from Brian Micklethwait’s view from the train | And via that, the “battery-shaped” tower that uses less electricity | Batman doesn’t need to hear about Gauteng’s weather again | Data analysis of Star Trek deaths illustrates danger of wearing a red shirt | Baby octopuseseseses | How to make tiny rockets from matches | How big is the moon, really? | Hyperdecant your red wine (really?) | What your suitcase sees post check-in | Following the reindeer by Evgenia Arbugaeva

Please email me with any suggestions for the next ephemera post.

OMD – they’ve still got it.

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Propped up by Corenza C and Red Bull, I made it out to Grand West last night for the first OMD concert in SA since 1994.

This isn’t likely to be the most impartial review you’ve ever read. It was never going to be, because I could listen to 80’s synthpop forever and a day and still enjoy every single second of it. And when it comes to 80’s synthpop, OMD were.. are… it.

No pretence from Andy McClusky that his dancing style is bizarre at best, nor that he’s getting on a bit.
On the the crowd’s reluctance to get involved:

Don’t be scared. I’m 53 and I’m still dancing like an idiot.

And then after a particularly energetic effort to Maid of Orleans:

It wasn’t dignified 25 years ago and it’s not got any better.
But at least I can still do it!

And he could. An admittedly generally sycophantic crowd were transported back to earlier times as they knocked out hit after hit, Paul Humphreys repeating those electronic riffs which kept us entertained on cassette all those years ago.

Considering this was “soulless” electronic music, there was passion and, strangely, almost a spiritual element to the performance.

Oh – and the new stuff isn’t bad either. This was a very pleasant surprise.

OMD wrote Electricity when they were 16 – a fact that a quick glance at the lyrics will confirm. But as we’ve mentioned before with these 80s bands, those lyrics worked back then. And, as Kraftwerk showed, the singing was rather incidental to the electronic beats and the keyboard themes.

Thankfully, OMD have moved on lyrically since then. But their recent stuff still holds true to their musical roots – and for me, that’s just great.

Robot Apocalypse

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I’m full of snot and I want to go home and sleep so that I can attempt to enjoy OMD this evening.

Herewith then, via a link from @JacquesR, important information from XKCD on how the forthcoming robot apocalypse could affect us:

Here are a few snapshots of what an actual robot apocalypse might look like:

In labs everywhere, experimental robots would leap up from lab benches in a murderous rage, locate the door, and—with a tremendous crash—plow into it and fall over.

It’s very informative and very amusing. Go there and come back here tomorrow for a concert review (possibly).

Ugandan Discussions

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I haven’t been there and hey, I’m a married man, so Uganda not a regular topic for discussion*.

I’ve heard many good things from friends and colleagues who have worked, lived and/or visited Uganda, but given the flu-like symptoms I am currently experiencing (and by flu-like, I mean flu-like and not influenza) (yet), I’m quite glad I haven’t been there.

Flu-like symptoms is how a cold starts. It’s also how influenza starts. And of course, it’s how Ebola infection first manifests itself. And that’s what is killing Ugandans left, right, but mainly centre right now.

Obviously, you guys will be the first to know when I start leaking blood from every orifice.

*Ugandan Discussions at Urban Dictionary